Thank you veterans!

Today is the day that we honor veterans. My father, a World War II veteran, wrote to me this morning that his plans for this day are to get his ears roto-rootered so he can hear again. He is shunning the free meal offerings, but I want him to know that I and others appreciate his World War II service.

As readers of this blog will know it has been a sad year for me, my younger brother Mike, a Vietnam veteran, died on New Year's Day. My father-in-law Red, a member of the 75th Division in World War II died July 7th and my former father-in-law Walt, a member of the Army's 10th Mountain Division, died in October.

My uncle Bill, a World War II veteran died in 2008, and my stepfather Ray, a Navy pilot in World War II, died about 20 years ago.

In reality, I might not be here today except for the connection my grandmother, Ethel Tyson, and grandfather, Ray Smith, made at an Army base in Battle Creek, Michigan where my grandfather was stationed during World War I. I know he was a sergeant and don't know if he was headed to Europe at some point, but from what I understand he never left the States.

I could be wrong about this, and I'm sure my father will correct me if I am, but family lore has it that Ethel and Ray met at a dance at or near the base somewhere around 1918. The rest as they say is history.

So this day has special meaning for me. My father reminded me in an e-mail this morning that he recalled that during Vietnam when my brother and I returned home from our service there that we avoided wearing our uniform off the base because of the nasty reaction we got from folks. (We lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, which is not known for its patriotic fervor). People held veterans in disdain in those days. When I went back to college, I avoided mentioning my service so as not to complicate my studies and grades with very liberal professors.

I'm grateful that the country has reached out to veterans, even when they disagree with the war the military service people are serving in. It is right to honor their service today and to say "Thank You."

Old friends, wasted talent

Was conversing online with a former colleague who is also recently out of a newspaper job. After I disconnected and had a chance to think, it seems so sad and wasteful that so many talented people (and I'm not talking about myself here because I would have been retired now and there are plenty more talented people than me) floating around out there without a beat to cover.

Politicians and others who need serious watching must be reveling in the thought that the field is now open for them to play their games with only a small chance of being caught.

Many of the folks left behind in the business are more than capable and talented of doing the work, but with so few of them I can't help but believe a lot is going to go unreported.

With some of our difficult family issues starting to settle a little, I hope to start back at looking at my former career and the careers of others and live up to the title of this blog and start writing again.

Ezra Kornscabble weighs in on AnnArbor.com

The Daily Derelict blog has some recent insights on AnnArbor.com.

A Washington Post "mess"

Thanks to a frequent reader for this column about a recent Washington Post column that was the victim of tighter deadlines and likely less editing.

Walt Brown, Rest in Peace

My former father-in-law, Walter "Walt" Brown, died Saturday at home in Addison Township. He was 92.

During the time I was married to his daughter, Susan, Walt and I spent many hours together. Because I worked nights in Flint, my days were free and Walt loved to cut wood, do projects around his and our house and generally kept himself busy. It was my joy and honor to spend all those many hours with him outdoors.

I learned more from Walt in those few years about wood working, tree-cutting, cement mixing, roofing and life than pretty much the sum total of all my years in school. He was a reservoir of common sense in a world where it is very scarce. There's a morning room built on to the back of my house today that is a testament to what I learned from Walt about carpentry and roofing.

Like all three of my father-in-laws, my father and stepfather, he was a survivor of the Depression and World War II. For Walt the Depression was the defining time of his life. He was a believer in not paying for something unless you could pay cash for it and he conserved energy by burning the wood available to him for free.

He taught me the importance of checking the wind before falling a tall tree and the ins-and-outs of a chain saw. He taught me that sharp was safer than dull and that you always "measure twice and cut once." He taught me that a man was judged by the neatness of his woodpile.

Walt also taught me that there was no such thing as a mistake, but just "errors." He also told me that a good spoken "sonofabitch" would fix most carpentry problems. Well, that and a well timed and aimed hammer stroke.

If he spoke the word "politician" it came out sounding like a curse word. He had no use for those who couldn't relate to people who worked hard and broke a sweat to make a living.

He built Susan's house with his own hands, each nail lovingly driven in by himself. Once after the house was more than 10 years old, we called after one of the windows fogged up during a cold snap. The call was made not to ask him to fix it, but just in passing the time of day.

About 1/2-hour later (this was about 8 p.m. at night) we heard Walt's truck pull into the driveway and he emerged with his toolbox and came into the house and fixed the air leak that caused the fogging.

Walt joked that not many builders would come back and fix the house they built ten years after it was finished. But then not many builders were Walt.

At one time he worked for Mrs. Wilson of Dodge-Wilson at the Meadowbrook Mansion in Rochester Hills. it is now a tourist attraction but he remembered the days that Mrs. Dodge-Wilson would call out for "Walter" to fix this or that.

During the time I knew him he was only rarely without his beloved retriever by his side. That dog followed him everywhere and it was rough when I had to ride in his truck to a woodlot because Jesse didn't like sharing the front seat with anyone but Walt.

He and his dog shared his lunch and his love. I've never met a man with a closer touch to nature than Walt. He loved animals. He had the rare ability to coax a wild chipmunk into his hand the first time he saw it.

But he also loved to hunt deer. Although it was more about the sitting in nature than it was in the taking of the deer. I recalled this story recently about one of Walt's hunting "trips."

Susan and I lived on 7-8 acres in Oxford Township. The back lot was a stand of pine trees - all planted by Susan and Walt, by the way - and when they were mature enough he would make a deer blind in the back and during hunting season it was not uncommon to hear his military truck pull into our driveway and head back to the woods about 5 a.m.

While Susan was at work during the day I usually did chores around the property, but when I knew Walt was back "hunting" I stayed up near the house so as not to spook the deer.

One day, I was watching out our back picture window when I saw a big 10 to 12-point buck that Walt had been eyeing for months, walk to the pile of corn and apples in the back lot. I watched for several minutes waiting for the inevitable blast that would take down this prize buck. It never came.

A little while later I heard the truck driving up the path next to our horse pasture and met Walt in the driveway as he headed home for lunch.

"Why didn't you shoot that buck?," I asked him

"Please don't tell me the buck was there, I fell asleep for a while," Walt said. We both had a good laugh about the 'one that got away.'

Like so many of his kind, Walt is in that disappearing group of heroes from World War II. During his youth around Rochester, Walt made a name for himself ski jumping and he had the newspaper clips to prove it.

When World War II came those skills were in demand in the Army's 10th Mountain Division, which Walt proudly served both in Europe and the Pacific. He came home and never left after the war. He was married to his childhood sweetheart, Eva, for 68 years. She used to kid that he loved his dog and spent more time with it than her, but she was wrong.

You can read the whole obituary here. There's a nice photo of Walt there as well.

He once told me a story about a German soldier that was shot in the heel someplace in Italy and when they approached him with guns drawn the German spoke in good English, "don't shoot, I'm from Detroit."

In recent years he made one of the "Honor Flights" to visit the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C., one of the very rare times he left his home.

There are many great stories he told that would fail in my telling here because they were good because of the way he told them.

Walt, you will be missed.

Will Northwest Airlines add a charge for 'longer' flight

My father, my resident expert of all things aviation, wondered in an e-mail to me about the recent 'extended' Northwest flight from San Diego to Minneapolis.

In case you hadn't heard, a pilot and co-pilot overshot the Minneapolis airport by more than 150 miles when they were otherwise occupied (some say sleeping, some say arguing and today they said they were reading on their personal computers) and simply missed their airborne exit ramp.

So my father wonders, what with all the new airline fuel and baggage fees, if Northwest will now bill the passengers on the flight for the extra fuel used in the sightseeing flight over Wisconsin. You know, with all the airlines bad public relations, it wouldn't really surprise me if they tried.

By the way, my father is a docent (and a darn good one) at the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport near D.C. He gives a great tour. My father served in the Army Air Corps in World War II and was a general aviation pilot during my formative teenage years.

Unfortunately for him I never got the 'flying' bug and when he asks me what kind of aircraft I flew on during a trip, he gets very frustrated when I say, "a big one with two or three engines." Not that I don't love flying, my favorite assignment remains the assignment and story on my flight on the B-24 "Liberator" bomber that visited Flint.

He wants details and I give him, well, not details. Above is a photo of my Dad during a tour he gave my wife and I at the museum. Its a great museum with some really great exhibits. One of my favorites is the Enola Gay, the bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Story outlines former Mayor's "access" fee

The brief item on Mlive.com isn't written very clearly, but it is an interesting take on former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's "access" fees.

Oakland Press gains readers from Free Press, News and Flint Journal

Give the Oakland Press credit for pursuing the daily newspaper readers abandoned by the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News and Flint Journal when they shrunk publication of the printed version to three days a week.

New numbers show that the OP picked up several thousand readers (not a great coup for sure) but at least they went up, and not down in circulation.

Thanks to a frequent reader for the link.

The real loss of beat reporting

Since my retirement I have been working part time doing public relations work. Last week I went to a public information officer conference in Saginaw.

During one of our break out sessions I was talking to a public relations person for a non-profit organization in Grand Rapids. She related the frustration of the new reality of newspaper reporting.

The hospital she works for had for years had a dedicated health reporter that covered it. Things went along well and with the relationships that built up stories were done that were accurate and timely.

Not so anymore, she said. Now, it's a roll of the dice that on a day-to-day basis the hospital will even know who is responsible for health coverage. Often they get a different reporter each time there is a story, she said.

That has created a situation where there have been many errors in stories, both online and in print. Corrections are made online, but without any mention of the previous error.

The woman said she has had a number of conversations with the editor of the Grand Rapids Press, but there seems little hope that it will be better any time soon.

Where's the vaccine? Can you say Hurricane Katrina all over again

OK, so last April the panic over the Swine flu began. Everyone predicted that it would come roaring back in the fall and winter and all the flapping gums expressed a need for an expedited vaccine.

So, where is it? People are starting to get sick in flocks and there is an inadequate supply of vaccine for folks who want it.

This is FEMA and Katrina all over again. The government simply does not have the capability to respond to disasters of the moment or the ones that they know are coming months in advance.

So President Bush rightfully got blasted for Katrina and when will the press start putting the blame on the new Adminstration for its failure to secure and expedite the H1N1 vaccine.

The press needs to be all over this. President Obama has declared it a National Emergency and yet with six months planning, we are dreadfully short of the vaccine. By the time it is ready, the crisis will be over.

Yeah, keep pushing that government option for health care.

A little fun for Saturday

My brother-in-law and I are headed out in a couple hours to East Lansing for the MSU vs. Iowa football game. My brother-in-law is an Iowa graduate and I went to MSU so it should be a fun night.

But my sister gave me this funny re-do on the classic Abbott and Costello comedy routine. I hope you enjoy it.

Bud Abbott & Lou Costello Updated

Someone sent me a copy of Abbott & Costello's "Who's on First" broadcast
from the 1930's. Now fast forward to 2008 and try to imagine Abbott and
Costello trying to buy/sell a computer. If you never heard Abbott &
Costello's "Who's on first" I feel really sorry for you, because you were
obviously deprived not only as a child, but as an adult too. You have to be
old enough to remember Abbott and Costello, and too old to REALLY
understand computers, to fully appreciate this. For those of us who
sometimes get flustered by our computers, please read on...

If Bud Abbott and Lou Costello were alive today, their famous sketch,
'Who's on First?' might have turned out something like this:

COSTELLO CALLS TO BUY A COMPUTER FROM ABBOTT.

ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: Hello. I'm setting up an office in my den and I'm thinking about
buying a computer.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: No, the name's Lou.
ABBOTT: Your computer?
COSTELLO: I don't own a computer. I want to buy one.
ABBOTT: Mac?
COSTELLO: I told you, my name's Lou.
ABBOTT: What about Windows?
COSTELLO: Why? Will it get stuffy in here?
ABBOTT: Do you want a computer with Windows?
COSTELLO: I don't know. What will I see when I look at the windows?
ABBOTT: Wallpaper.
COSTELLO: Never mind the windows. I need a computer and software.
ABBOTT: Software for Windows?
COSTELLO: No. On the computer! I need something I can use to write
proposals, track expenses and run my business. What do you have?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yeah, for my office. Can you recommend anything?
ABBOTT: I just did.
COSTELLO: You just did what?
ABBOTT: Recommend something.
COSTELLO: You recommended something?
ABBOTT: Yes.
COSTELLO: For my office?
ABBOTT: Yes
COSTELLO: OK, what did you recommend for my office?
ABBOTT: Office.
COSTELLO: Yes, for my office!
ABBOTT: I recommend Office with Windows.
COSTELLO: I already have an office with windows! OK, let's just say I'm
sitting at my computer and I want to type a proposal. What do I need?
ABBOTT: Word.
COSTELLO: What word?
ABBOTT: Word in Office.
COSTELLO: The only word in office is office.
ABBOTT: The Word in Office for Windows.
COSTELLO: Which word in office for windows?
ABBOTT: The Word you get when you click the blue 'W'.
COSTELLO: I'm going to click your blue 'w' if you don't start with some
straight answers. What about financial bookkeeping? You have anything I can
track my money with?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: That's right . What do you have?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: I need money to track my money?
ABBOTT: It comes bundled with your computer.
COSTELLO: What's bundled with my computer?
ABBOTT: Money.
COSTELLO: Money comes with my computer?
ABBOTT: Yes. No extra charge.
COSTELLO: I get a bundle of money with my computer? How much?
ABBOTT: One copy.
COSTELLO: Isn't it illegal to copy money?
ABBOTT: Microsoft gave us a license to copy Money.
COSTELLO: They can give you a license to copy money?
ABBOTT: Why not? THEY OWN IT!


(A few days later)
ABBOTT: Super Duper computer store. Can I help you?
COSTELLO: How do I turn my computer off?
ABBOTT: Click on 'START'

Put me in the Libertarian column - a rant for a Wednesday

As frequent readers of this blog knows I have little or no use for the two party system. In my opinion the American political system is broken and the roots of that brokenness have everything to do with the trap of a two party system.

Democrats = Republicans and vice versa. You can make all the arguments you want about the differences, but in the end the one thing they have in common is they live and survive for their own self interest. The public and doing the right thing for the Country is lower on the priority lists of the two parties than doing what is politically expedient. Period.

I know this is not a great revelation. It is simply obvious. Neither will do anything to support the other, even if it is the right thing for the country.

My contempt for the politics of the 1970s, 80s, 90s and through today has little bounds.

With the death of my father-in-law and the placement of my mother-in-law in a nursing home that contempt has only magnified the anger and frustration with what I feel is a government out-of-control.

My father-in-law saved carefully all his life. He invested wisely and was prudent. Now, after paying his taxes for his entire life the government has created a situation where they and the nursing home will confiscate most of his wealth in just a very short time.

Medicare rules and nursing home requirements are currently draining about $10,000 a month from my in-laws carefully constructed nest egg to care for her in a 10 X 20 room. For $10,000 a month you could reserve a room on a cruise liner and live there in luxury, but laws written by Republicans and Democrats are seeing to it that what was so carefully collected over 50 years will be gone in less than two years.

Trust me, the government will not get my nest egg, because I'll make sure it is gone before I am, or I'll hide it where they'll never find it.

If you haven't been through this event - the placement of an elderly parent in a nursing home - you will not have an appreciation for the labyrinth of rules and regulations drawn up by legislators to make sure they squeeze every dollar from every citizen before they die. This from citizens who have been lifelong taxpayers.

The rich - and the legislators - would never have to face this because they would have been able to afford the lawyers and crooks that would have sheltered the money.

To navigate these laws and regulations you are forced to hire an elder care attorney - not a cheap option - and spend even more money to salvage something, anything, for my surviving mother-in-law. Just spending two months watching this has me longing for a new 1776 revolutionary spirit. Of course the money you spend on lawyers is exempt from all the other regulations. Republican and Democrat lawyer-legislators made sure of that.

People ask me why I don't support the public health care option. It's easy, because I don't trust the government and I hold them in utter contempt. I don't need any more reason than that.

Living through this government induced horror for my mother-in-law and her savings has more than convinced me that it is time to throw ALL the bums out, President Obama included.

And don't offer me any Republican or Democrat as a substitute either.

Consider just a few recent examples:

A Democrat who helps write tax laws, doesn't pay his own taxes.

Another Democrat congressman scoffs at the idea he should ACTUALLY read the health care bill.

A Republican governor preaches family values and then flies to Argentina for a weekend with his mistress.

President Bush convinced Congress to act quickly to pour billions into a broken financial system to save the corrupt bankers and insurance companies who created the crisis. Did things get better? No, they got worse.

President Obama enters office and immediately repeats the mistake, promising that by doing so unemployment will stay under 8 percent. Wrong again! Unemployment is approaching 10 percent with little indication it will drop any time soon.

For you young people who support these policies just remember that the trillions in new debt being rung up by the past and current administration - aka Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum - will be on your backs to pay in a few years.

While some think all this money being handed out is "Obama money," it is really "your money" and you will be responsible for paying it back, with big interest. Remember that someday when you are trying to smile and say "Yes, we can."

We have a sleeping media. We have media on the right that attacks everything and a media on the left that acts as a cheerleader. For an old newsman it is beyond frustrating to watch.

It's past time for serious questioning and investigation and frankly, it may be too late.

If someone will boil the tar, I'll be happy to bring the feathers. I actually wrote this last Sunday and slept on it for two days and actually toned down some of what I previously wrote, but I don't want anyone to try and tell me that the government is the answer for anything except providing a great military defense and law enforcement.

If you're a Republican or Democrat politician and you're reading this, well, you probably owe everyone an apology.

What this guy said

Unfortunately the embed on YouTube.com is disabled, but here's the link to one of the great philosophers of our time. I could not agree with this guy more. Stay tuned for a rant from me on why our stupid government is completely out of control. Start boiling the tar and feathers.

Inside Out: Newspaper changes near and far

Inside Out has a good accounting of all the recent local changes in the news biz.

Speaking of AnnArbor.com

While I was in the land of pineapples and grass skirts Mgoblog reported the lead story on AnnArbor.com on one day in September was actually a four-year-old story out of another newspaper.

Ooops.

Don't bother with the link to the AnnArbor.com article, it has been removed.

Things may be looking up at the FJ

Either the bottom line is floating up from the bottom or Booth is making a last gasp effort to right the ship.

Some good news yesterday with word that a former sports writer has been rehired to the staff. My previous complaints about poor local golf coverage may be over. Also Brendan has long covered the local IHL team - the Flint Generals - and is a writer that fans either love, hate, or love to hate.

It's good news for Brendan and for the paper that he's back.

You can check out some comments from yesterday, but it sounds like employees are going to get dinged for their health coverage and the rumors are persistent that there may be an additional publication day added to the schedule.

Also from first and second hand accounts there is word that the circulation department is calling up former subscribers - subscribers that the PAPER cancelled - and asking them if they would be interested in coming back if they re-established some of their rural routes.

That's going to be a tough sell as folks tell me they are now over the daily newspaper habit.

Went over to AnnArbor.com last night for the first time in six weeks. Yaaaaawn!

E-mail box full of rumors

Plenty of rumors made their way to my e-mail in the past month. Many have to do with rumblings that there may be some added print days at one or more of the papers who had their print days reduced to three days a week.

Also some information that printing at the Flint plant will end as soon as the current contract with the printer's union expires.

I noted that there has been a changing of the guard in my former column - Off Beat.

It does my heart good that the column that I started without prompting or encouragement by any editor in 1990 remains a feature in the Flint Journal nine years after I stopped writing it and two years after I left the paper.

My best wishes to the guy who replaced me and now the woman who replaced him.

Blogging to resume - soon, but first, meet Griffen Harry

Sorry for the blogging hiatus, but returning from our trip left me scrambling at work and at home. Not to mention that it took me several days to catch up on my sleep from our long flight home.

I'm sorting through e-mails and information and I'll post some of that information on Sunday night.

There has been a little excitement here as well with the birth of Griffen Harry, our third grandchild and first boy at 12:21 p.m. Friday, 10-09-09. Griffen (the "en" continues the tradition that started with Addisen) checked in at 9 pounds, 1 ounce.

He has blondish, red-hair which could be traced to his recently departed great-grandfather, Red.

Mother, baby, father and Big Sister Addisen all doing fine and very happy. As I did with Addisen I introduced myself to Griffen wearing my Michigan State sweatshirt. It's important to start the indoctrination early.

Life is good.

More philosophy from Red

In honor of my father-in-law his two daughters and sons-in-laws wore special t-shirts to the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor last month. The t-shirts were designed and made by my step-son, John. The color red was picked because of my father-in-law's nickname and the KB2FME lettering was his HAM radio call sign, so a tip to his favorite hobby. The picture was taken in the room where the names of the dead sailors are inscribed on the wall.

Also, while we were gone, the other daughter, Patty, continued her quest through his many journals. Here's the latest installment. Many of these are from before the time he was sick.

"I don't worry much, but i fret much more"

"Opposites attract but are not compatible"

"Every day you learn something new about yourself"

"Make yourself happy, for the moment"

"Everyday is a good day as long as you are breathing"

"Aging is when your farther from the beginning and closer to the END."

"The older I get, the more Philosophic I get"

"Parents ruin more children than any other source"

"What I need most in life I never got" (Perhaps a reference to his mother leaving him when he was just a baby)

"I don't know where I'm going but I sure know where I'm going to end up"

"All the problems of life are man made"

"Time alone is to please no one but yourself"

"By the time you smartin' up, you're dead"

"I'll survive until I die"

"Dont' wake up mad, it's a long day"

"Being a nothing, I wish I never existed"

"I whine because the Beer isn't Cold"

"If you look at twins, one always looks older than the other"

"Money is only a problem when you don't have it. Relations are only a problem when you have them"

"Patience is a virtue. Patience is also virginity"

"It all has to do with nothing"

"If you can't remember it, forget it"

"The reason most comics get divorced is because their wives laugh at them"

"Dieing is no way to live"

"God, self and others"

"If I wake up, I hope it's 6AM"

"It's locust time for the politicians"

"We're all an island onto ourselves"

"Life is never dull, we make it so"

"Willie wouldn't be Willie if he wasn't"

"God made man, then he goofed"

"Tis easier to receive than transmit" (A HAM reference)

"What am I doing? Reneging food for thought"

"That person's seen both sides of the dam. That person's been on both sides of the dam."

"What don't work, I shall try again"

"People go from one bad habit to the next"

"I have been, so I am eternal"

"It's almost impossible to get to be 60 years old and not enjoy some parts of life"

"Why Criticism? Criticism is a compliment: it shows that you have done something too important for a critic to ignore."

"Diane fainted- she was shot from the shot" (flu shot story reference)

"Peace is the time, when the kids go to bed and before the parents go to bed"

More to come.

Someone in the Newhouse chain is still doing well

The list of the Forbes 400 richest includes a Newhouse at No. 38. My bad, the Newhouse reference was from 2006 here is the latest, he has slipped to No. 52.

Here's the final: Samuel Newhouse.

And Donald Newhouse.

World War II - Poster 20

World War II - Poster 19

Back from Hawai'i

Just a quick note to let you know that we are back from our trip and that blogging will resume very soon.

Only five comments posted in my absence and I have put them up this morning. See you all soon! Hope you enjoyed the World War II posters.

World War II - Poster 18

World War II - Poster 17

World War II - Poster 16

World War II - Poster 15